Whitey Grandad

Nobody knows until they see the referee's report. At the time I thought it was for dissent because there was a delay between the incident and the card. Fàbregas was certainly mouthing it off to the assistant and everybody within earshot. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/29/244C790300000578-2889905-Chelsea_players_in_particular_Cesc_Fabregas_were_rightly_upset_w-a-1_1419866493367.jpg

Yes, I'm sure it will be considered but this is Liverpool we're talking about so a ban might be asking too much.

If Mourinho is going to criticise one decision then he ought to also mention all the others that were made during the same game. Or is it too much to ask that he be fair and open-minded?

I was just quoting the FIFA instruction to referees. Sorry, I should have made myself more clear, I was actually referring to the West Ham incident. I agree that Schürrle was completely inactive. He was just hanging around at the far post out of the way.

In the 60s if you went to a football match that was the end of the matter. No replays, no video evidence, nothing. If you missed a goal then you'd never see it again. There was supposedly a newspaper reporter who covered the Arsenal home games by spending the afternoon in the pub and writing his match reports by chatting to the locals after the game.

It is classed as 'Interfering with an opponent' "Preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent".

Turkish! You've scored.

This incident was nowhere near as clear-cut as many others this season and certainly not a nailed-on certainty that some in the media are claiming. To me it just looked like a coming together of the two players and Fàbregas just tried to make the most of it. His reaction proves to me that the referee was correct. As Shakespeare would say: The lady doth protest too much, methinks. It just demonstrates to me that the Chelsea players are concentrating their efforts too much on trying to win free kicks, penalties and yellow cards rather than using their considerable skills to score goals by conventional methods. If Fàbregas had skipped round Targett they might have scored the goal they wanted.

Well that is a surprise.

Any good referee would be doing that already.

After the game they were a fiver.

Well, our manager is Ronald Coupman. I'll get me coat.

Chart

His first wasn't even a foul.

They would have to extend it. There's a minimum capacity of 15,000 in the Premier League.

Have you been eating too many blue Smarties Jeff?

Rickie had the same problem.

Spotting

I think you're right about Mourinho and his nasty sneaky tricks. His whole team were at it yesterday, flinging themselves to the ground at every opportunity and whining like cry-babies whenever a decision went against them, Fàbregas for example. It's not something that I ever want to see in the team I support. It reminds me of the dirty cheating Leeds team under Don Revie.

Not so Redslo. Most referees and assistants run what is called 'rights'. With each assistant running from the halfway line to the goal line and the referee running diagonally from one corner to the opposite so as to cover the quarters with no assistant. The senior assistant handles the side with the managers and benches. Very occasionally they will switch to the mirror of this, either to try to keep themselves mentally fresh or more usually because if physical reasons such as a muddy touch-line or, as yesterday, sun in the eyes.

Perhaps he wants to move closer to 'home', spiritual or physical. He was born in Wimbledon and without knowing anything about his personal life it's quite possible that he or his family are getting a bit fed up with the North-East.

Pilot

Thanks. I'll be very quiet. I promise.

Thanks, but I've already had one, two years ago. Watching is about all that's left to me now And another thing... All my teeth are my own. I paid enough for them.